Charity Event with instant photo's required.

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652]

I've been asked to set up a small studio thingy at a local charity event. It

is a fancy dress party and the idea is that people pay to get their photo

taken in their costumes with the money going to the charity, get their photos

immediately and then a slideshow of the pics will be shown on a screen during

the dinner party following the reception.

 

I have to admit that I've never done anything like this before. I assume I'll

be taking the photo and then actually using the oft damned 'direct print

button' on my 5D to send the file straight to a dye sub printer for

convenience. I will then take the resulting files and bang off a quick

slideshow in Proshow Gold (which I have) for the slideshow thing.

 

Does that sound like a feasable plan? I haven't mentioned it yet but I'm

actually doing this gratis, it's a charity fundraiser and one run by my dad at

that. With that in mind and given that the charity will be paying for the

printer, are there any suggestions for a quick printing 6X4 dye sub or are

they more or less all the same at that level? Are there any readily available

and affordable dye subs that do 7X5"? Hold on just had a thought, renting a

pro level dye sub will save a lot of time and be very tax deductable, will

they work with the 'direct print' or should I be hooked up to a laptop with

Adobe Lightroom for this kind of thing?

 

Any suggestions most welcome.

[picturesque]

HiTi printers have a good reputation for this kind of thing (they also have a model that can print 7x5) and the supplies are reasonable. Don't know about the direct print option but you can also just swap memory cards after sets of 5 couples or something, which go directly into the printer. I wouldn't think you would need to use a computer in the printing loop, only for the slideshow, and you'd use jpegs and manual flash lighting for dead on consistency. Being a nervous type, if it were me, I'd have a back up inkjet printer, supplies and laptop in the car, just in case.

[picturesque]

Come to think of it, since you need the files for the slide show anyway, I guess you might as well dump into the laptop, which can then drive the printer and be collecting the images for the slide show.

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652]

um...given that I will probably be doing very fast shooting/pritning I don't think I can afford to not print immediately. I just reread my 5D manual for the most skipped over chapter in Canon's history, I would need a pictBridge compatible printer which seems to cut out all the high end ones I've seen for rent. Having a computer as part of the workflow will mean needing a 2nd person which I can't garuantee I will be able to get depending on whether my wife can help!

[fotografz]

Ben, be sure to check the speed of any stand alone printing option. I looked into one awhile

ago, and while it printed pretty quickly, the feed was quite slow from a camera or a CF card,

and it took forever to load before ever getting to the printing itself.

 

In essence, a laptop could well be a lot faster, and you can use PS printing action or

Lightroom.

 

That may well have changed, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

[alec_myers]

I do this kind of stuff.

 

Do you have an idea of how many people are attending? These sorts of things have a habit of taking off suddenly - no business for what seems like hours, then suddenly you're overwhelmed.

 

Recommendations:

 

Have two people, at least. Then you have someone to talk to in the quiet periods, and someone to drive the laptop when it's busy.

 

Use Picasa (free from Google) for editing. Shoot JPG, tethered if possible, or take plenty of CF cards and swap often with your laptop operator.

 

You can hire a printer from http://www.systeminsight.co.uk - try the Mitsubishi CP9550 or something similar, which will turn out 7x5's quickly.

[geoffs1]

I agree a second person is key. It would really speed up the preparation of the slide show to have the "keeper" shots already segregated into the slide-show folder as they are collected.

 

My suggestion on the slide show is not to be too picky. Each shot will be displayed for about 6 seconds, and nobody will pay much attention to detail. Also, check the projector out beforehand. Many are setup for graphics display and they can really make photos look bad if you don't change the mode.

 

Cheers,

 

Geoff S.

[phil vaughan - yorkshire u]

I'm currently watching Canons Ebay site for a dye sub printer (usually 15-40GBP) for a gratis event for the local scout group. I'll be using the laptop for downloads and there'll be 2 of us there (Wifey got me into this one...).

 

I hadn't considered getting the projector running though (Scout group own one) Great idea and it might help boost sales plus it'll do some good for the publicity (local press attending).

[bruce_rubenstein___nyc]

Alec gave the best, most complete answer so far. All that I might add is that if want to try to do this by yourself then: shoot tethered - have the camera set up on a tripod and fire it from the laptop. Use one light with an umbrella and maybe even a backdrop. With everything in manual all the lighting and WB will be the same. With any luck you should be able to shoot and print without tounching the image, ot just a quick crop.

[jeremy_nako]

I'd strongly endorse Alex's comments.

 

I recommend that you go to Insight (where I purchased my system) and hire a good printer, or even a full Mitsubishi Click system.

 

This kind of photography can be very rewarding financially, but can equally be a nightmare if you get your workflow wrong.

[grant g]

In case you needed to hear it again: It's definitely *at least* a two person job. I'd use three since I'm not that fast at post and *quickly* culling shots for a slideshow.

[savagesax]

Think it would be best to have someone printing. We do a mess of events like this. Not sure how fast you need to have the prints ready. We use Kodak and Sony dye subs and for 6X4 expect about 30 seconds. I think it is just too much for 1 person to pose, shoot, print and do the slide show. As a general rule we use 2 people for 60 couples, then we add another 2 printers and laptop with a 3rd person. Also a 4th person to shoot if the lines get long. The key is to keep the waiting line very short.

[jeremy_nako]

Definately a two person (at least) job !

[ibdnzgr]

Here in the U.S., I use two or more small dye sub printers that produce 4x6 prints and cost about $100 each. Important that the printers have memory card slots. I shoot maybe five to 20 images on a CF card and then swap out cards, handing the used card to the assistant who dumps into the computer and then places the card in a printer and starts printing. After the print pops out, the assistant places a small rolled bit of tape on the back and mounts in a card. I pre-make the cards out of cardstock 8.5x11 paper folded in half. Event logo is printed on the cover and my info and website are printed on the back using a color laserprinter.

 

If you can't charge a fee per print, then you can at least make money on reprints later. People can go to your website or online print service and order real prints of better quality than the freebies. This is why it is important to save all the images in the computer.

 

If you can't have an assistant and are doing this for free, then get the hosting organization to provide an assistant to take the prints and mount them in the cards for you.

 

The collected images on the computer can be simply played back in slideshow mode on the laptop and output to a digital projector if necessary. No need for creating a video montage of the images.

[michelle_logan2]

I am shooting a low key birthday party like this! I was looking for ideas etc on how to do this easiet and quickest. I am charging the people actually have the party a flat fee ($150) and then I still get to charge the people who want to take the pics. I am only going to be there for 2-3 hours. I never thought about using cardstock for the 'cards' to hold the images. I usually buy them from wolf/ritz. Great idea Ian D. Of course I knew already it was going to take 2 people!